Secretary of State Anthony Blinken testified in front of a House Committee on Monday, making incredible claims about the Trump administration, and even admitting to the shocking reality left behind after Biden failed to evacuate American citizens.
CONGRESSMAN SCOTT PERRY: "Can you tell us where you are today?"
BLINKEN: "Yes. I'm at the State Department."
PERRY: "Couldn't be bothered to come down here and see Congress? Alright, that's great." pic.twitter.com/PmTB86uRaW
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 13, 2021
Of his many shocking statements, Blinken claimed that the State Department did not inherit a plan of evacuation from the Trump administration. Blinken said a deadline was established by Trump’s State Department, but a plan to execute the withdrawal of U.S. troops by that deadline was nowhere to be found.
"We inherited a deadline; we did not inherit a plan." – @SecBlinken pic.twitter.com/BErpVtaLRh
— DNC War Room (@DNCWarRoom) September 13, 2021
This was Blinken’s first lie.
Trump’s Former Pentagon Chief of Staff Kash Patel already destroyed this myth, saying – in writing – that he handed over a comprehensive plan to withdraw U.S. troops to Biden’s transition team.
Patel wrote:
Trump instructed me to arrange a conditions-based, methodical exit plan that would preserve the national interest. The plan ended up being fairly simple: The Afghan government and the Taliban were both told they would face the full force of the US military if they caused any harm to Americans or American interests in Afghanistan.
Next, both parties would negotiate to create an interim-joint government, and both sides had to repudiate al Qaeda. Lastly, a small special-operations force would be stationed in the country to take direct action against any terrorist threats that arose. When all those conditions were met — along with other cascading conditions — then a withdrawal could, and did, begin.
We successfully executed this plan until Jan. 20, 2021. During this interval — when there were no US casualties in Afghanistan — President Ashraf Ghani and the Taliban conducted multiple rounds of negotiations, and al Qaeda was sidelined. The result was a successful drawdown of US forces in Afghanistan to 2,500, the lowest count since the dawn of the War on Terror.
We handed our entire plan to the incoming Biden administration during the lengthy transition. The new team simply wasn’t interested.
Patel wrote that everything changed when President Joe Biden declared forces would leave by September 11, 2021, but did not condition the withdrawal on continued adherence to the agreed-upon stipulation.
Additionally, a former senior defense official revealed that then-Defense Secretary nominee Lloyd Austin even rejected a meeting with Trump’s outgoing Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller — a former Green Beret and counterterrorism official who had at the time just returned from Afghanistan in December.
It doesn’t end there.
After a contentious line of questioning, Blinken was forced to admit that his administration did in fact leave behind American citizens who were desperate to escape the Taliban, and that Taliban forces were actively blocking the departure of planes from Kabul Airport. In other words, American citizens are being held hostage without any assistance from the federal government.
Secretary Blinken just admitted that the Taliban has blocked American charter flights out of Afghanistan.
This is a hostage situation. pic.twitter.com/KW4keFBQBf
— House Republicans (@HouseGOP) September 13, 2021
Another harrowing consequence of Biden’s failed mission is the inevitability of Afghan terrorists sneaking into the country as the Biden administration welcomes tens of thousands of unvetted refugees. Blinken admitted this was definitely the case.
.@GerryConnolly: "Were there any known terrorists or declared terrorists by the United States among those 5,000 people released with the consent and negotiated agreement of the Trump administration?"@SecBlinken: "Almost certainly, yes." pic.twitter.com/tG4qblnrOV
— Mike Gwin (@MGwin46) September 13, 2021
Author: Elizabeth Tierney